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Saturday, March 29, 2014

I think I will be taking a little breather for April. Only #IMWAYR posts. (This Monday? Ninja Librarians!)

I hope you will stick around for when I start rambling about closing up at the end of the year and SUMMER READING (it's so close! Well. In my imagination, anyway). Just looking to get caught up on reading and maybe get ... inspired. Been feeling less than excited and "ain't nobody got time for that." Our job's too important!

Until then maybe I'll see you on Twitter or Pinterest or FB. Or commenting on YOUR blogs or FB pages (if I know that you have them. Who am I missing?). Or maybe Vine or Instagram if I ever actually post something there. ;)

Saturday, March 22, 2014

SURVIVED! Why is bookfair so crazy? You know what I'm talking about. Thankfully we have a couple of volunteers who basically work full time that week to help.

Of course at the same time trying to mentally rearrange a library to fiction genrify AND lose half of the shelving and browsing floor space because of finally building partial walls that are being limited by a ridiculous hawk on the hallway floor so that the teaching area is STILL in a visually distracting area. :X That might have something to do with the headache. Maybe. And now you have a headache after that run on sentence. :P

The whole "Keep Calm" thing was fun for a while but it is starting to get a little old. A little. This one still made me laugh, though.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter is the best combo in the world. Second? Chocolate and mint. Third? Chocolate and graham. Sense a pattern?

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

give up for sure a third if not closer to a half of your shelves for this kind of partial wall?

I'm thinking out loud, internet.

Pros
Much less visual distraction in the library. There might BE 400+ people walking by but at least we will only see them through the door opening (no actual door ... just an opening).

Much less messy shelves because there will be so fewer books ... and they won't be in the hallway where "idle" hands waiting during class restroom breaks or to be picked up from lunch mess with them.

Right now new wall shelves would not be part of the deal. It would just mean taking all the books off of one side of our current shelves and pushing them up against the new wall.

Maybe weeding that much could be good. Could only keep the best of the best.

Cons
Would that really help with the noise? The librarian where I took this picture? Says only slightly.

That's a LOT less shelf space ... thousands of books. Thousands. And a fair amount of floor space that we'd lose bringing everything inside. So will it feel claustrophobic. And just be ugly with (unless things changed) these big white shelves (they are like ... I don't know. 30 inches deep? 'cause they are double sided ...) with shelves pushed up against the wall.

Would this mess up our wireless? Cause right now? The library is the only space in the school where it works fairly decently and reliably.

Would make it hard for a class to be checking out at the same time a class was here for a lesson. If I never did that (cause I am lucky enough to have an assistant at least part of the time) we'd either lose a lot of circulation (even though kiddos can always come on passes some teachers are better than others at sending them) or a lot of lessons. Though the lessons we HAD would be much more focused because of fewer distractions.

Trying to wrap my head around also losing what little office corner I had (where does one keep any sort of task card or station signs or more tactile stuff like puppets or crayons or personal books that don't go out and can't be stored on a hard drive if you don't even have an office corner? And no storage closet)? Also lock up a jacket and purse (not that I actually can lock them up now ... but at least it's not a corner where people can walk through easily)? Only got to sit there for like four minutes a day to gobble down something but at least it was space that was sort of mine. Had to ask people not to just go through and "borrow" my things. And about half of our circ desk.

Did NOT expect this when TPTB came by today. Was expecting to discuss the "transformation plan" as I'd written it (creation of a small makerspace/recording studio ... basically closet). This one completely ... well, completely negates that. So glad I bothered with stressing over it. :P

But the chance for maybe walls and not be Grand Central Station. Just ... central station. That's hard to just ignore.

Monday, March 17, 2014

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now… who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!

GREAT IDEA! Check out all of the What Are You Reading? participants for title ideas.

Last Week was SPRING BREAK! How quickly it flew. Did nothing but read and watch silly TV. Couldn't go outside because of dumb pollens and got tired of "organizing." :P

Click on the pics to go to Goodreads and get more specifics on the titles. My favorites of the week? Probably Jabba or Mr. Lemoncello. Or Hank Finds an Egg. That Death of a Policeman one was truly, truly NOT my favorite. Cannot comprehend how that series made it to 30. Or maybe it's not so terrible if you've read the first 29? Though the parts I didn't like ... I don't think so.

This week? I should get some picture books in because of bookfair. And I'm about halfway through The Ninja Librarians and it's great fun so far.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Yes. It came and then it went. Bookfair and standardized testing to look forward to the next couple of weeks. Note to self: it won't last forever. Click through because embedded pins don't play nicely in either Feedly or Bloglovin.

I just gained ten pounds looking at this picture.

I do love this print. It says in the description you can have the colors changed. Decisions. Red would go in my kitchen but is this really a kitchen print? My living room/bedroom are both leafy greens and browns and yellows and a bit of blue. My office is a sort of stormy blue. So decisions. Putting up art is a lot of decisionmaking!

This is interesting. Pretty sure we want to get a couple external mics. The ones in an iPhone or iPad are decent if you are sitting in a quiet room but at school? Even if you HAVE walls how often is it actually quiet?

Love this post about using an iPad app to chart understanding of a class readaloud.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Remember this? (Excuse my terrible film a Kindle with an iPhone clips ... they really are terrible and they are supposed to be because I want you to go watch from the real source!)

At the end of every episode. This is from the first one. Isn't that awesome? #itsallinbooks

This little clip is from the first episode as well. It's just funny. And sad. Yes, the older guy died only a year or two later from an accident on another set. Sad.

They should remake this show. Though period pieces (especially ones that have all sorts of DIFFERENT periods) could be expensive. To do well, anyway. Was this well done for the time? Dunno. Probably not. Who cares. I loved it.

And here's Goodreads. Three picture books and one middle grade book finished today. One adult book finished Monday. Several more to go ... and spring break half over. NOOOOOOOO!

PS I am guest posting on Kirby Larson's blog tomorrow. What on EARTH possessed me to submit an idea? Back in like December that of course I couldn't really remember when my turn came up? So anyway. I hope it's not incredibly dumb. #nerves

Monday, March 10, 2014

It's Monday! What are you Reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. It is a great way to recap what you read and/or reviewed the previous week and to plan out your reading and reviews for the upcoming week. It's also a great chance to see what others are reading right now… who knows, you might discover that next “must read” book!

Saturday, March 8, 2014

You can find much more innovative ways to use Aurasma with a quick Google or Pinterest search. I loved one where the students posted work without names ... and then when the parents came for a conference they chose which project they thought was their child's and scanned with Aurasma. A video overlay popped up with the student! Or as a way to practice word wall or exceptionally difficult vocabulary words. Or shapes. Anyway. That said? We're proud of our first four attempts. The audio is not great. Couldn't find anywhere inside the school where there wasn't a bunch of noise so we went outside. To find airplanes and cars and even a helicopter. Oh well. They did a great job of talking up their books and being our "guinea pigs" and maybe we'll be able to get an external mic.

Download Aurasma.
The little A at the bottom is how you open up the menu.
Search for HHES Library. The capitals do seem to matter.
"Follow" us. (Because if you don't have the device on which you MADE the Aura in hand you need to be following the channel that made it.)
Scan these images. Or if you have the books on your own shelves ... that will work, too!

(For now it does have to be this older cover ... some time next week I'll see if I can fix it to link the newer one as well.)

I took this screenshot of the Aurasma purple A icon and then printed it on some of the square QR code labels that I already had. Handwrote our channel along the left side. That way people will know this book offers a little something extra. Thinking about how else we can use this ... even though we're entering testing season where very little learning actually takes place anymore. All in the name of "assessment."

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Ours has already been delivered. Just not setting up until after spring break. Got some colorful things to hang from the ceiling at Party City (that the kids are just LOVING jumping up to see if they can hit). :P The rest of our "decor"?

A Throwback Thursday post ...

Thought these were kind of fun. Got the clip art from Scrappin Doodles and the borders from Karen Cox. Fiestas are a big deal where I'm from ... and a big one is coming up.
Download the file with all of the mini-posters here. Got an idea for a better "slogan"? Put it in the comments and I'll update the file! I struggled a bit with these. Loved the graphics and wanted to do something colorful in the library ... but wasn't quite sure what to say. I definitely like some of them better than others. Here's one example. Go to the main file for the rest.

Not the greatest preview pic but if you click through the graphics look much better. Hooray for Scrappin Doodles clip art again!

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Another Tech Tip ... easy image editing! Does that sound strange when I am so terrible at remembering to take pics? That I love to play with image editing?

I almost hate to send you there because it is in need of updating (Picnik went bye bye a long time ago and Aviary has followed suit). But check the Image Editing page at the top of my blog. If you have any questions comment and that will be a good motivator for me to work on it. Page is pretty text heavy as it is. Probably won't happen until summer. Unless I get some good questions before spring break is over. ;)

The Big Huge Labs stuff is still relevant. Here's a Snapguide I did for some 4th graders who were illustrating "I AM" poems. It took them longer than I thought it would ... but you know why? Because they were really thinking about the images they wanted to create. They weren't just snapping selfies. That's pretty awesome, actually.

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Not as often as I'd like in an organized sense. I do lots of on the spot booktalking. Lately, though, I've been wondering if I needed to ... plan them out better. Once in a while I'm like "This is such a good book!" but I can't remember enough details to really hook the kiddo. I'm terrible at rote memorization, though. Tried to get teachers to have kids write "shelf talker recommendations" (like at B&N) but that's not always a done deal.

I used to make my own genre-centered Animoto trailers with bookcovers and first lines. That took longer than it was really worth, though.

Now when I have classes come in 9 times out of 10 it's book trailers ... which is a bummer for the books that don't get trailers made.

These are faster to make. Sometimes embedding a Symbaloo makes opening the links WAY SLOW on our school network. But not always so I keep going and just cringe when it's a bad network day. This is an older collection but it's still a favorite.

Monday, March 3, 2014

If you would like to vote take a look at this preview to see how the voting areas work ... then click on the link and vote for your favorite door! You know it "worked" if you see a green pin like on Google Maps.

I didn't have anything big planned. Just small Seuss things all week. Which turns out to be a good thing because I am sick. Again. Woke up achy and sore throat and feverish and slept for most of the day. :P Dumb immune system. Dumb germs.

Saturday, March 1, 2014

Listening: time to go turn it off if I don't even know what it is or what's going on. Enjoy the silence when I can!

Loving: ONE WEEK! ONE WEEK!

Thinking: Been in the house since December. It's about time, right? But it's so ... eeek! Holes! In the pretty new walls. What if I pick the wrong spot ... (we won't even go in to all the new stuff I want to get ;))

Wanting: motivation. Need to make that LEAP to just dive in. Motivation doesn't happen when you're sitting on your rear end on the couch.

Needing: see previous section as well, right? Something's blown in and stupid allergies or a cold are making me blah. I must rise above. :P :/

??????

And the random question ... anyone know of some good book related (any age) or elementary classroom curriculum related Aurasma channels? Teachers are finally on board with the QR codes. They've popped up everywhere. It's time to throw something new into the mix. :)